A flying splice is a method of splicing a new roll of a material to an expiring roll of material as the expiring roll is almost completely unwound. The method is described as “flying” or “on-the-fly” because the splice is made without the need to stop or slow down the unwinding of the expiring roll of the material.
Flying splice operations may be of particular importance to the woven and nonwoven materials industries. In some of these industries, for example, the diaper industry, many different types of materials are unwound and incorporated into the final product. Typically, several unwinding machines may be needed to unwind the various distinct materials. The large amount of unwinding machines may result in manufacturers making a large number of flying splices on the different materials in order to maintain continuous production. A flying splice typically uses an adhesive tape to splice the leading edge of a new roll of material to an almost completely unwound expiring roll of material. The flying splice adhesive tape may also use a type of fastener known as a splittable adhesive system to adhere the leading edge of the top winding of the new roll to the second from the top winding of the new roll. The splittable adhesive system thus prevents the premature unwinding of the leading edge of the new roll when the new roll is brought to the approximate rotational speed of the expiring roll in order to perform the flying splice operation. After the flying splice is made, the splittable adhesive system may then split, as the leading edge is unwound from the new roll. An adhesive residue may remain on the second from the top winding of the new roll when the splittable adhesive system is split. With every flying splice made, the portion of the new roll comprising the flying splice and the adhesive residue is separated and removed to ensure that the spliced section and the residue section are not sent to consumers. Removing this amount of product for every splice made reduces the amount of product produced and also generates waste.
Additionally, some of the woven and nonwoven materials may be difficult to bond due to their varying surface characteristics. Generally, the contact area of the adhesive of the splittable adhesive system is much smaller than that of the contact area of the splice adhesive layer. As such, it may be difficult to find a common adhesive sufficient to bond each of these different materials with an adhesive that is localized to a reduced contact area, which is typical of the splittable adhesive systems.